Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's ice hockey team scored five unanswered goals in the third period to cruise to an 8-2 victory over Johnson & Wales on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action.
Senior Alyssa Hulst (Scarborough, Maine) scored two goals and had two assists, while junior defenseman Samantha Benoit (Bow, N.H.) notched five assists to lead the Cadets' offense in the victory.
Norwich (19-4-2, 16-0-0 NEHC) wrapped up its second perfect league regular season in the last three years and extended its unbeaten streak to 50 straight games in NEHC play.
Junior Blossom Truel (Stratford, Wis.) scored her 10th goal of the season at the 3:00 minute mark of the first period off assists from Benoit and Hulst to give the Cadets an early 1-0 lead.
Norwich extended the lead to 2-0 with KC Herne (Akwesasne, N.Y.) scoring her first goal of the season off assists from Truel and Hulst. Truel found Herne in the slot and then Herne took care of the rest, beating JWU goalie Jasmine Mucci blocker side.
Johnson & Wales (11-10-4, 8-5-3 NEHC) responded with two goals in the opening six minutes of the second period with Katherine Mason and Hannah Tracy notching goals for the Wildcats. Mason beat NU senior goalie Emily Lambert (Riverview, Mich.) after she had lost her goalie stick. Hailey Boyle and Samantha Kawejsza picked up the assists.
Tracy scored at the 5:36 mark off an assist from Kawejsza to tie the game up at 2-2.
Sophomore Ann-Frederique Guay (St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec) scored her first goal of the game and 13th of the season off assists from Morgan Tefft (Redwood City, Calif.) and Benoit at the 14:43 mark of the second period to give Norwich a 3-2 heading into the second intermission.
Ingrid Holstad-Berge (Stavanger, Norway) scored on the power play at the 3:17 mark of the third period with assists from Benoit and McGovern. Guay scored her second of the game and the 14th of the season from Berge and Benoit.
Hulst scored twice in the final five minutes with her third and fourth goals of the season. Sandwiched in between was Amanda Conway's (Methuen, Mass.) 25th goal of the season at the 19:21 mark on the power play off assists from Julia Masotta (Tewksbury, Mass.) and Mikah Baptiste (Ottawa, Ontario).
With the goal, Conway tied Julie Fortier '12 for the Norwich all-time points record with her 175th career point.
Hulst capped the scoring at the 19:55 mark with an assist from Brynn Wopperer (Amherst, N.Y.).
Lambert made 18 saves in the victory to improve to 7-1-0 on the season.
Norwich earned the No. 1 seed for the NEHC Tournament for the 10th straight season and will host the No. 8 seed Salem State on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. in Kreitzberg Arena.
